Tag: Yarn Shows

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It’s A Kind Of Magic

Five balls of yarn curve around a photo of the Northern Lights. The yarn matches the colours in the picture - dark blue, blue-green, grey, acid aqua and apple green. The background is a pale gold carpet

Back in February I had a design submission accepted. I was asked if I would be interested in using a particular dyer’s yarn and I jumped at the chance. The dyer in question is Rachael of Cat and Sparrow. We had some communication about the project and she asked if I had particular colours in mind. I replied with “Something like this?” and sent the picture that had inspired the design.

When the yarns arrived I was utterly stunned. “Something like this?” – it was exactly like that!! Rachael had worked absolute magic. The yarn is Singular BFL, a Bluefaced Leicester fingering weight singles yarn. ‘Singles’ just means it only has one ply. It was a joy to work with and I am SO pleased with the results.

When you are sent a specially dyed set of yarn that’s all there is – you can’t just go and buy some more to experiment with – so, although I’d swatched my idea thoroughly in completely different yarns and was clear on how the pattern would work, there wasn’t a lot of wriggle room for playing with and checking the best order of colours. So, I turned back to a technique from my City & Guilds in Hand Knit Design (thanks Loraine!). A great way to try ideas out and compare them without using up lots of time or yarn:

Trying out colour order options

The finished pattern – Bargello Aurora Wrap – is being published this Thursday (September 1st) in The Knitter, Issue 180 (that link should update to be Issue 180 on Thursday). Rachael is selling kits of the yarn on her website, dyed exactly the same as the yarn I knit the sample in, for you to knit this lovely wrap. And the finished design and kit has a 10+% meterage buffer for each colour, so it won’t be a disaster if your tension is a little looser than mine. You shouldn’t end up playing yarn chicken!

5 Skeins of yarn in a pile. Dark Blue, grey, blue-green, apple green and jade
Bargello Aurora Yarn Kit from Cat and Sparrow UK

The wrap is worked lengthwise in order to get the maximum effect from the angled stripes (you’ll see…!), which has the added benefit of minimising the number of yarn ends to weave in once you are finished!.

Here’s a very sneaky peek from when it first came off the needles, before being blocked:

Bargello Aurora unblocked

This yarn has no problem being blocked firmly despite being a single ply construction – it was surprisingly strong and has great stitch memory. I’m not showing you the finished item though – you’ll have to wait until Thursday for the big reveal on that one!

Whilst the news of this design is very current, the wrap was knitted many months ago (in March). This week I have been working on two knitting projects, one of which I can show you. The latest secret knitting is coming on well and I’m now on the fourth section of five. I had got as far as halfway through section three before (did I tell you?) when I had to admit some aspects were not pleasing me, so I cast off, blocked it and reconsidered. That was definitely worthwhile as it looks FAR better now – tiny tweaks but they’ve had a big impact. Of course, I can’t show you that one.

The other knitting project I cast on for on Thursday. I finished it last night and it is now blocking on a balloon.

Rachis Blocking 1
Rachis Blocking 2

That’s the joy of a hat – it’s small and quick and this one was good telly knitting (apart from when I missed a couple of yarn overs and had to fix it a couple of rounds later), especially as the yarn was a DK weight and light in colour. The pattern is Rachis from Woolly Wormhead and the yarn is from The Midnight Dyery (dyed when she was The Project Bag). I highly recommend the pattern (and the yarn)! I made the fourth size of six (21″) and there was plenty of yarn left from a single skein.

The other piece of big news is that Yarn Gathering is now less than three weeks away! When Anne at Yarn O’clock and I first started talking about and planning this event, September seemed such a long time away. And now it’s so close!

It’s very exciting for us that, since we first circulated the idea amongst yarnie friends/possible vendors, there has been such a positive response. We’ve even had some local fibre artists we didn’t know about contact us and ask if there might be room for them to have a stand.

Hopefully you’ve seen the posts that I’ve been publishing on Instagram and Facebook in the past week or so, each one spotlighting a different vendor. Yarn Gathering even has its own Instagram page now (@yarn_gathering_nwales) which should make it even easier for people to get details about the vendors they can come and meet. And, of course, I’m updating the webpage whenever I get additional info.

Yarn Gathering will be a small event (only a dozen or so stands), but since the Mold Food & Drink Festival is also on, it’s a great opportunity to make a day of a trip to our lovely corner of North East Wales!

I think that’s all I have time to tell you about today – I’m now going to help my lovely wife attempt to straighten up the washing line with the use of potting grit down the side of the post… Wish me luck! K x

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Showtime!

We did it!

The PopUp Wool Show on Saturday was definitely a success. The organisers were great and there were even some people on hand to help haul heavy things up the steps when we arrived. I am incredibly grateful to Sue for being such an amazing assistant – and for bringing all the stuff in her car that wouldn’t fit in mine. We were both a little tired when the alarm went at 5am on Saturday morning, having had an interrupted night driving to check Sue’s workplace after the alarm went off at 12.30am… However! We survived and I would bet that none of the lovely people who stopped by the stand would have guessed we were each running on two chunks of less than three hours sleep.

So, today I’m going to show you a few pics from my stand and show you the one thing I bought myself – yes, even though I was running a stand I still managed to buy something!

All these pics were taken early in the morning just as we were finishing setting up (we arrived just after 7.30am and were set up by about 9am), so there will be other folk in the background setting up their stands, and lots of bags and boxes around.

A few vendors were unable to attend due to illness which meant there were some spaces. I ‘cheekily’ offered to take a larger space if it would help fill a gap and surprised myself by filling up a lot more room than I’d anticipated!

From left to right, this was my stand:

With ‘Daisy’ on the left, modelling West Country Gothic and the single colour version of Marianne Half Hap:

The classic bunting across the front of the stand and Calon Cariad at the end in Wool Local. Other designs on this table were Beth March Shawl (which was a lot more popular than I’d anticipated and I ran out of printed copies), Little Orme Hat and Mitts and Heart in my Hands Collection. I love how the covered heads look – so much better!

Nubble Mitts on the top of the mini table were also popular – I sold two kits of that design. They were the first Mystery Knit-along that I did with Yarn O’clock! Next to the mitts is a head wearing Nubble Hat (which you can’t really see) and Mirror Mirror Möbius. At the end of the table is Maid Marion Shawl with another sample of West Country Gothic overlapping it.

Propped up against the second (!) table is a framed set of sheep photos taken and edited by Sue. Aren’t they cute? This table has Anne’s Jubilee bunting across the front and some bunting kits on the end of the table, along with Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary lavender bag kits. Much of this table was used for patterns and for my portfolio, showing the requirements for each of my (50+) designs.

Just in front of Sue is another head form wearing Llanberis and Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl.

The right hand side of the second table has our bare stem tree behind it with the Mini Socks Advent Calendar displayed on it, along with my hand burnt wooden hanging hearts and some beautiful hand turned light pulls that were made by a friend’s dad. In front of the tree are the Advent Calendar kits, coasters and some more stitch marker pots. And, of course, a bottle of hand sanitiser just in shot.

Another sample of Calon Cariad is at the end of the second table (this one in Socks Yeah! that I made during the KAL in February) and in front of that is a folding table I borrowed from Anne. Drifting Leaves is tied on the left and Nos Da is draped over the top. Yarns for these designs fill the ‘shelves’. And what is that to the right…?!?!

This, my friends, is a very Heath Robinson set-up. A small side table with an old-fashioned folding sweater blocker on top of it. This was held securely in place with four bungee cords (cunningly hidden by the knitting). Draped across the arms of the sweater blocker are (L-R): Into the Vortex, Amy March Shawl, Diamonds in the Breeze, Helena Rose Stole, Jo March Scarf and Angel of the North. Below on the table is Croeso Baby Blanket.

It may look a bit as though wash-day has become very fancy, but I wanted to display as many shawls as I could and, without wall space (or any ‘gridwall’), this was my solution – and it worked! (In my defence I did see another stand which was using a clothes airer for the same purpose.) There was a lot of interest as people rounded the corner – they would stop and pick up the corner of a shawl or turn over the brioche scarf to see the reverse side – and often enough that interest turned into a lovely conversation and sometimes even a sale. It was a huge boost to my confidence to hear people’s comments as they looked at my designs too.

My purchase was some incredibly vibrant Bluefaced Leicester fibre to spin. I bought this braid of gorgeous neon green from Wild Field Fibre – do look them up!

I can hardly believe there have only been three days since Saturday! I’ve launched the Mini Socks Advent Calendar pattern online, written a newsletter for subscribers with a discount code, completed an application form for NEXT year’s Pop Up Wool Show, re-printed patterns, reorganised stock, been to IKEA and got some boxes to help create clearly defined kits and allow me to exhibit almost the same amount of items with one table instead of two, reorganised stock again in light of new boxes and knitted some more of nibling’s sock (finished the heel gusset now!).

Tomorrow I have to crack on with my secret knitting project and double check / correct some patterns that have just come back from my tech editor!

And can I remind you about Yarn Gathering?

Social media posts are going to focus quite a lot on this in the next couple of weeks, in particular showcasing each of our vendors in turn – today it’s Trevor Blackburn’s turn. We’d love to see you there.

That’s all for today – it was quite a lot, wasn’t it! And it was quite a show. Take care, K x

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Paper

A side-on view of a large pile of printed patterns. The front cover of Into the Vortex can just be seen out of focus on the top.

There has a been a huge amount of paper in my world over the past few weeks – particularly yesterday. Which is why this morning I thought, “What day is it? Wednesday? But… I didn’t write a blog post yesterday!!”

So, what papery things have been happening? I’ve been printing copies of my patterns for the Popup Wool Show this coming Saturday. Or at least, I had been attempting to. I wanted to print most of them as A4 booklets (so, A3 paper folded in half). When I bought my last printer I was looking for this facility and yes, it printed A3 and yes, it printed duplex. However, it was not until we had it home and unpacked and I had tried every possible setting under the sun that I discovered it did not actually print A3 duplex. Argh. Grrr.

I’ve been attempting to do work arounds by manually turning the paper over, but the printer was frequently picking up several sheets at once (usually on the second pass) and smearing ink everywhere. It had got to the point where I was only inserting a single sheet of A3 into the tray at a time as I was so sick of wasting paper and ink. And then I was sick of wasting time!

The printer got sworn at on several occasions (not that that helped). Eventually at the weekend I gave in and ordered a new printer that actually does print A3 duplex (and also photocopies and scans A3 too!). It arrived yesterday afternoon and was immediately pressed into service. It’s forced a rearrange of the study that actually makes it feel more spacious, even though the new printer is slightly bigger. And the patterns? Wow, I got everything I needed printed out in three hours – which would have taken more like three solid days and lots of pleading, swearing and crying with the previous one. The patterns look fantastic and I can’t wait to show folk at the show on Saturday – I will have at least one copy of everything with me. Below is a small selection!

A selection of my printed patterns spread out on the carpet overlapping with each other.
Selection of printed patterns from Kath Andrews Designs

The new printer is a Brother MFC-J69550W – and after 24 hours or so I am incredibly happy with it. The two paper trays also make life a lot easier as I can have A4 in one and A3 in the other. It wasn’t until I got the final pattern printed out this morning (after some last minute updating to the layout) that I realised how stressful the previous printer had been to use!

Other papery things this week have been the polystyrene heads I have been covering with Décopatch paper to make them look nicer while they are modelling my hats and cowls. I’ve done a third one since taking this picture and have one left to do tomorrow.

Two head forms sit on a pale gold carpet in front of a brown sofa. The left one is covered with blue and green peacock feather paper, the right with blue and pink peacock feather paper. They are shiny.
Décopatch Heads

Also, the paper copies of Haven; Knit Lace Patterns arrived! The books look beautiful as Knit Picks books always do. As I get two copies of each book I have a pattern in, I will be doing a giveaway for one of them with my Facebook group at some point in the near future. So, if you’d like a chance of winning one, go and join!

Two copies of a knitting book are on a pale gold carpet. The front cover showing a seated woman knitting wearing jeans and a blue lace shawl is upwards on the right copy, overlapping the back cover showing on the right. There are three pics part visible on the back - all of the same woman wearing different knitted lace garments.
Haven; Knit Lace Patterns

Have I done any knitting in the meantime? Yes, a little!

The new secret project is coming on nicely, after a few little tweaks to allow for the differences between the yarn I swatched with (a really rounded and bouncy DK from Colinette) and the yarn I’m really using (West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece). As it’s secret I can’t show you yet, but I think you’ll like it when I do!

I finished one sock for my nibling and started the second one: Yarn is from The Knitting Goddess. The black yarn is hard to see in the evenings unless I’ve got a really good lamp on it; definitely more of a daytime knit.

One complete sock and a sock in progress on a pale gold carpet. The majority of the sock is semi-solid black yarn with a trans pride flag striping just below the cuff
Trans Pride Flag Sock

I’ve also got about one third of the way through the next square in the Nevern Throw Expansion Pack. I may alter the bottom of the curves in the centre a little. Yes, I did pin straight into the carpet. If I hadn’t the photo wouldn’t have shown you much – the lower image of the two is the same knitting unpinned!

'split screen' photo. The upper part shows a stranded square in progress pinned out to show the celtic knot work patterns on it, the lower square is the same knitting without pins - all rolled up.
New Nevern Throw Square in progress

This was knitted whilst watching the new Elvis film – it’s really good and I’d recommend it. I don’t consider myself a big Elvis fan, but the film certainly had me tapping my feet and having a little chair boogie every now and then!

One more head to cover with paper and shiny glue and then it’s all systems go for the show on Saturday – Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight, 10am-4pm. There’s also a heavy duty wire shelving unit to assemble tomorrow, but I’ll tell you all about that once it’s done!

Take care one and all, and I hope to see you at the Popup Wool Show on Saturday if you’re anywhere around the North West of England at the weekend. K x

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Holiday

The past few weeks have been a patchwork of working really hard and relaxing in different places.

Part of my set-up practice for Popup Wool Show shows the different colour yarns I will have with me for Nos Da kits and also the gorgeous colours of laceweight available for my various lace designs, including Drifting Leaves (attached to the left side of the table).

Nos Da and Drifting Leaves with yarn

The floor plan of the show has been published and I’m delighted to see I’m right next to Lottieknits – she has such wonderful colours in her hand dyed yarn.

Popup Wool Show Floor Plan

We were in Pershore recently and I acquired this bag at a cool shop called Follyies. It’s perfect for a large sweater quantity project – and has an internal zipped pocket to keep the bits and bobs safe.

‘My Doris’ bag

We had a little day trip to Chirk last week and bravely walked across the aqueduct which is right next to the viaduct! There’s also a patch on the canal path where you can stand with one foot in Wales and the other in England! Apparently that’s unique on the UK waterways.

Ronnie by Chirk Viaduct (whilst on Chirk Aqueduct!)

When visiting family we often stay in a Premier Inn, but sometimes it’s nice to treat ourselves. This is the view from our room at The Crescent Turner near Whitstable. You can see the sea and this room has its own little terrace to chill on!

View from our room by day

And the sunsets were magnificent! There was one tree that was silhouetted against the sky with the colours shading between blue and orange – it could almost have been an African skyline!! Sadly I didn’t get a photo of that detail.

View from our room at sunset

Ronnie continued his adventures and decided to do his impression of The Lady of Shalott over a clear running patch of river in Canterbury. He’s getting far more adventurous in his old age (he’s been with us for 20 years now!).

Ronnie trying to be The Lady of Shalott

I have even been able to get some knitting done that I can share with you! This sock has made excellent progress and should be finished in a day or so. The trans flag stripe is from a whole skein of Trans Pride Flag yarn from The Knitting Goddess. She sells little ‘stripey stripes’ too which are two sections of yarn containing one full flag each, but I wanted to get a whole skein so I could do more. These socks will be a gift for one of our niblings and they have been gamely trying on the sock in progress so I can ensure a good fit!

Sock for nibling coming on!

One of the drawbacks of writing my blog on my phone seems to be that I can’t include links – but I will add them in as soon as I get access to my laptop again. [eta – links now done!]

I hope you’ve enjoyed the mix of pics today! Take care and keep hydrated, K x

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The Kits Are Alright!

Four small cream bags lined up each showing two of the four half balls of yarn they hold, a larger blue bag on each end holding two whole balls of yarn.

The past few days have been mostly about prepping for the Pop-Up Wool Show at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight on August 20th. I’ve been checking my stocks of kits, gift tag sets, patterns etc and making lots and lots of lists! I’m quite proud of my kits. They all come with a cotton project bag, metal stitch markers (if needed and the correct number for the pattern), a printed pattern and yarn in majority natural fibres.

Today a folding 6 foot table was delivered. Not only do the legs fold away, but the whole thing folds in half so it can fit in the car!

I’ve also borrowed back lots of knitted samples from Yarn O’clock and borrowed a couple of little stands to add to my display set-up.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar looks great on the tree!

Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, on tree

I also took pics of it hung on the mantlepiece and a door, as not everyone has a tree they can hang 24 mini socks on.

Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on mantlepiece
Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on door

The kits are all made up and include stitch markers and the tags for the numbers, as well as 10cm pieces of ribbon to tie them to the hanging loops and one long piece of ribbon to hang them from.

This is what a four colour kit looks like:

Mini Socks Advent Calendar Kit Pinks

The striped sock has been test knit (by Anne at Yarn O’clock) and she made hers super stripy, as one of her yarns was variegated. Doesn’t it look cute?

Striped Sock from Mini Socks Advent Calendar

There have been a few things happening this week that are not wool show related. I finished the Morse Code Cowl! It is currently drying having had a bath this morning. I was very pleasantly surprised that no dye emerged while it was soaking, despite the yarns being such deep saturated colours – excellent yarn from The Travel Knitter.

Morse Code Cowl Front, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews
Morse Code Cowl Back, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews

I know the poem will be impossible to read, partly as it curves around the cowl, partly as it’s in Morse Code and partly as there is not a lot of contrast between the two yarn colours, but it’s satisfying to know that it really is Sue’s poem. This is the actual poem that I knitted into the cowl:

This Was Once a Good Poem

but it has eaten cheese and pickle rolls for a week now

and it can’t work out why the vitamins aren’t working.

It rocks in the chair until its eyes are too tired to see

and has scared itself with thoughts of Autumn spiders

under glasses in the hallway.

It is wondering if it is true that conkers in corners

keep arachnids at bay

and is now standing in the dark

sniffing last year’s horse chestnuts

desperate to find their scent.

Sue Finch

I also took delivery of some yarn for a project I won’t be able to show you for AGES, but it’s going to be a fun one. The yarn is gorgeous – Fleece from West Yorkshire Spinners in Ecru and Fellside – and I’m looking forward to casting on later today.

West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece in Ecru and Fellside

We harvested our broad beans at the weekend, along with the first two of our squashes/courgettes. The broad beans were pitiful in quantity, but tasted good. This is the entire crop in the left-hand photo!

Broad Bean Harvest
First of the Squashes

And on a slightly less healthy, but very fun, note – did you know you can now get BLUE Jammie Dodgers?! They are filled with coloured, berry-flavoured apple jam.

Blue Jammie Dodgers!

Anyway, today’s post was going to be a short one – but it doesn’t seem to have turned out that way! Take care one and all, and if you happen to be in the Port Sunlight area on August 20th it would be great to see you!

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Christmas in July

24 mini socks lie drying in two rows on white foam mats. A larger sock is at the bottom right. The socks are a mix of solid colours, stripes and colour blocks in various combinations of four yarns; purple, pink, red and multicoloured.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar is almost complete! The socks are knitted, the ends are woven in, the hanging loops have been crocheted and sewn on (and more ends woven in) and they have all had a nice relaxing bath. The measurements and gauge have been taken, the pattern is written up and checked and I’ve decided what order I’m going to hang them in.

A close up of the mini socks drying in two rows on white foam mats. 10 are visible. A larger sock is at the bottom right. The socks are a mix of solid colours, stripes and colour blocks in various combinations of four yarns; purple, pink, red and multicoloured.
Kath Andrews Mini Socks Advent Calendar close-up

Although there are twelve pairs of socks I have decided not to hang them in pairs, but instead following the sequence: solid-striped-colour block. And overlaid on that is another sequence following the colours of the cuffs; red-pink-multi-purple up to the halfway point and then reversed. I like it, but if you make the advent calendar you can hang them in any order you prefer! You could even hang them all separately on a Christmas tree to make the hunt more of a challenge.

All I need now is for the small round kraft labels to arrive so I can tie the numbers on to the hanging loops and string the whole thing together with ribbon and hang it up for some proper photos!

The kits are prepped – I’ll have seven with me at the Pop-up Wool Show – three in the colourway shown, two in a blue/green/purple/multi combo, one in just red and cream and one in blue and cream. All using West Yorkshire Spinners ColourLab DK, with the multicoloured yarns being two of the Zandra Rhodes special colourways.

The Mini Socks Advent Calendar takes 200g of DK yarn and I was able to get the larger Day 25 bonus pattern out of that amount as well, though it might be a push if your gauge is looser.

Kits will be £20 to include the yarn, a printed copy of the pattern, stitch markers and a cotton project bag. The pattern will also be available on its own as it makes a great stash buster!

A small hand knitted sock in stripes of blue, pink and white lies on a pale gold carpet.
Kath Andrews Tipton Sock

I’ve been on a bit of a sock flurry! This is Tipton. It’s small because this version was actually a swatch for a submission, but it’s intended as an adult sized sock. While it wasn’t chosen to be part of the collection I submitted it for, I do like it and have decided to work on the pattern for self-publication. This sample swatch was knitted with CoopKnits Socks Yeah! I’ve had the colours for ages and think they’re now discontinued, so I will need to go on a yarn hunt (what a shame…!) for current yarns in these colours. I’ll tell you more about Tipton another time.

A cross-stitch in progress showing a variety of pride flags
Safe Space by Peppermint Purple in progress

My cross stitch is coming on. Safe Space by Peppermint Purple is a fab design that comes in both cross stitch and blackwork versions and includes a huge variety of pride flags. 50% of the profits from the pattern go to Stonewall as well. Can you see any similarity between one of the flags and Tipton?

An embroidery in progress re-creating a b&w photo of my mum in her twenties
Photo Embroidery of Mum in progress

My intention to complete four more colours this month is stalled – partly as I’m currently working on one of the most prevalent colours. It’s a dark grey which is almost indistinguishable from the black and it’s not easy going on the eyes. I’ve found a good solution to help me not lose my place on the chart in between stitching sessions though – a small post-it with an arrow drawn on it pointing at the last stitch I worked. Using magnetic strips wouldn’t help much with this one as the colours jump around so very much. I think I’ve done more on Safe Space instead as it can be worked without reference to the chart for every single stitch!

A close up of a stranded hand knitted cowl in progress. Main colour is dark red. Black is used for purl stitches in the corrugated ribbing and the morse code poem
Kath Andrews Morse Code Cowl 2

Do you remember the red and black yarn I purchased from The Travel Knitter at the RiverKnits Open Day? It’s halfway to becoming a stranded cowl. The Morse Code Cowl, as I have called it, has one of my lovely wife’s poems translated into Morse code and then converted into a knitting chart. That was a LOT of work, before I could even cast on! But it’s coming on. I am most pleased with the section that isn’t Morse code – the part that will say “Poem, Sue Finch“:

The other side of the hand knitted cowl in progress, showing the poet's name - Sue Finch - worked in black on a dark red background.
Kath Andrews Morse Code Cowl 1

The link on her name will take you to her publishers where you can read some reviews of her first collection, Magnifying Glass. (And you can buy it if you like what you read!).

The last pic I’m going to share with you is one of those roses I rescued last week. They still look might fine in their bowl of water! The orange has changed to a more pinkish shade now and they’ve opened up, completely filling the bowl. It was a really good way to save what otherwise looked like a bunch of flowers destined for the compost.

A glass bowl filled with nine rose heads floating in water. They are orange shading to pink in the centres.
The rescued roses – one week on!

Take care one and all, and look after the folks around you as well as yourselves. And, if you can, go knit something – maybe plan ahead a little!

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Gathering it all Together

A close-up shot of part of my table at the pop-up shop in Feb 2020 - various yarn kits, patterns and knitted samples arrayed on the table.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Anne at Yarn O’clock and I have been planning something for September. Well, it’s going to be happening!

We are hosting a small yarn gathering in Mold on Sunday 18th September!! We’ll be open 10-4, which will allow you plenty of time to visit us AND the Mold Food and Drink Festival which will also be happening that weekend.

There’s a dedicated page on the website that has the full details and the same page will be on Yarn O’clock’s website too.

On the subject of yarnie events, did I mention I’m going to be exhibiting at the Pop-Up Wool Show in Port Sunlight this year? It’s at Hulme Hall on Saturday 20th August. Although the exhibitor list isn’t fully up to date on their website, I will be there! It’ll be my first event of this kind since the ‘before times’ and my first proper wool show – exciting! I’ve been checking through my designs and planning which ones I will have kits for there. There will also be a completely new pattern launched at the show – with kits! Suffice to say that I came away from Yarn O’clock with bags-a-bulging this morning!

At the weekend I worked out that I’m currently working on four designs, with a fifth submitted yesterday, a sixth swatched that will be submitted next week and two others that will be worked on in the coming months. One of those will be a mystery knit-along, but it won’t be happening until October. This is probably why I’ve not had a huge amount of knitting that I can actually share with you recently…

So here is a sneak peek at my progress with the Rainbow minis from RiverKnits:

I’m loving these greens! With 20g of each colour, it’s possible to plan the design so the colour changes fit in nicely, and with 12 colours to play with I’m always keen to jump into the project bag to check out what the next one is going to be.

What else have I been up to? Well, I’ve started spinning some chunkier yarn. I’ve got 200g of undyed Polwarth that is a dream to spin with and, as I knew it wouldn’t be all knotty and misbehaved, so it seemed like the perfect choice to practice spinning thicker singles. It’s working out really well at the moment, but I’m going to have to weigh what’s left to work out when to start the second bobbin. This yarn won’t be chain plied (3-ply), so the two strands will need to be on separate bobbins, as there’s no way I’m going to wrap 200g yarn round my wrist to bracelet ply it (working from both ends of the yarn simultaneously)!

I’ve sort of found room for all the embroidery floss and other bits and bobs I came back with last week, but I’ll probably end up reorganising the study again at some point as I don’t think everything is in an entirely logical place yet. However, that will need to wait a little while!

My ‘Safe Space’ cross-stitch, designed by Peppermint Purple is making some progress. I’ve decided to do one flag at a time, rather than complete one colour at a time and it’s making it much easier. Of the 33 flags in the design, I’m on my fifth.

I’m so pleased the design includes a map identifying all the flags as there are lots I don’t know. I also didn’t realise before that the gender queer flag uses the same colours as terfs use (the suffragette colours) and which are ALSO my old college colours (purple, white, and green).

I’ve also been working on ironing out the issues with the pdf that will accompany my next Craftucation course (An Introduction to Knitting) – Graeme, the amazing tech wizard behind their website, had to do some rummaging to work out why I was unable to edit it and figure out some workarounds. I can now make it behave and get photos on the same page as their captions (I’d list that under ‘quite important’!) with a little bit of prodding. There’s one more section (5 chapters) left to do and (I’ve done 22 chapters already!) then it can be uploaded for approval and listing.

On Sunday we spotted a ripening raspberry in the garden, so very soon I hope to be able to share pics of our first harvest of the summer with you. The blackcurrants are nearly ready to pick as well!

Take care of each other and stay safe, K x